o·blique

(ō-blēk′, ə-blēk′)

adj.

a. Having a slanting or sloping direction, course, or position; inclined.

b. Mathematics Designating geometric lines or planes that are neither parallel nor perpendicular.

2. Botany Having the part on one side of the midrib of a different size or shape than the part on the other side. Used of a leaf.

3. Anatomy Situated in a slanting position; not transverse or longitudinal: oblique muscles or ligaments.

a. Indirect or evasive: oblique political maneuvers.

b. Devious, misleading, or dishonest: gave oblique answers to the questions.

5. Not direct in descent; collateral.

6. Grammar Designating any noun case except the nominative or the vocative.

An oblique thing, such as a line, direction, or muscle.

adv. (ō-blīk′, ə-blīk′)

At an angle of 45°.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin oblīquus.]

o·blique′ly adv.

o·blique′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	obliqueness - the property of being neither parallel nor perpendicular, but at a slanting angle spatial property, spatiality - any property relating to or occupying space
	2.	obliqueness - the quality of being oblique and rambling indirectly deviousness indirectness - having the characteristic of lacking a true course toward a goal

Translations

obliquità

obliqueness

[əˈbliːknɪs] N [of angle] → oblicuidad f (fig) [of reference] → lo indirecto, lo tangencial; [of reply] → evasividad f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

obliqueness

→ Schiefe f, → Schräge f, → Neigung f

(fig: of means) → Indirektheit f

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in periodicals archive

It may take psycho-historians, who have a more penetrative grasp of the dynamic of social evolution than us political columnists do, to explain that state's obliqueness. But one thing is plain: living as we are in Marshall McLuhan's "global village", where that Euro-American world goes in the future will, in a trickle-down effect, affect where our own world in the Middle East will itself go.

A new illiberal world order is taking shape

Much of the drama occurs off-page, which lends a fascinating obliqueness to the changes in the at-first subterranean and then, later, openly gay life at the novel's core.

The Sparsholt Affair

At times, Chadwick's dedication to allowing these women to speak for themselves results in moments of obliqueness, in which a reader uninitiated in decoding Surrealist imagery may find themselves lost in a forest of symbols and abstractions.

Sister pact: The women artists of Surrealism recognised the creative possibilities of friendship

The recent foot-dragging and obliqueness displayed by Pakistani banks in following up the State Bank of Pakistans' Banking and Payment Arrangement (BPA) with Iran to promote bilateral trade has been dismal.

To Dither And Dissemble

Thereafter, their quality parameters were revised by following the recommendations that indicate ideal obliqueness and orthogonal quality (OQ) values, trying to maintain minimum OQ > 0.1, or maximum obliqueness <0.95.

Comparison of Stress Concentration Curves for Different Geometries of Machine Elements Obtained via Simulation and Experimentation/Comparacion de Curvas de Concentradores de Esfuerzo para Diferentes Geometrias de Elementos de Maquina Obtenidas via Simulacion y Experimentacion

In the past, she has overlooked the letters' secrecy and evasions, but now is drawn to "the obliqueness of the language" (282).

TEXT, TERRAIN, AND TEMPORALITY: RE-EXPLORING JUDAISM IN ALLEGRA GOODMAN'S THE COOKBOOK COLLECTOR

Dialectically ridden, The sea change incorporates numerous ellipses and understatements, displaying the obliqueness of the writing as reflected in the characters and their (forced) choices towards the seemingly deviant sexual demeanor.

A clean, well-lighted writing

The intensity of the escape response was best predicted by the aspect ratio and the obliqueness of the adductor muscle.

Possible prediction of scallop swimming styles from shell and adductor muscle morphology

If there is any thread linking all of Zhang's work, it is that mode of obliqueness and entanglement.

States of exception: Pauline J. Yao: on the art of Zhang Peili

The obliqueness of the question signals that a fundamental change is taking place.

THE DIALECTIC OF COMMUNITY IN PLATO'S REPUBLIC